Releases new phone to compete with Jobs
While the super slim Apple Messiah Steve Jobs was walking
onto the stage packed with some teen's liver, he did so safe in the knowledge
that he was wiping another press launch off of the headlines.
Rival Palm was releasing a lighter, cheaper handset
called the Pixi which was aimed to be less pricey than the Pre. Although Palm have known that Apple was going to conduct
one of its media love-ins yesterday for some reason it carried on with its
launch, know that Jobs was going to nick the headlines just by walking onto the
stage.
The Pixi's release will mark Palm's second attempt in
less than a year to use new software and streamlined designs to lure consumers
in the still small but fast-growing smartphone market dominated by Apple's
iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry. The Pixi will come with a touch-screen, full QWERTY
keyboard and Palm's latest operating system, WebOS. It will also have 8
gigabytes of built-in memory. The Pixi's smaller screen and keyboard both fit
on the face of the handset. It is also longer and slimmer than the Pre, and 3.5
ounces lighter.
It will have a 2-megapixel camera, instead of its
sibling's 3-megapixel version, and two small speakers rather than the Pre's
single large one. All good stuff, so why did Palm release it when all of
the tame US press would be cheering Jobs managing to make the stage? Answers of
a back of postcard please to “whatthehellisPalmsmarketingdepartmentdoing?”
Private Bag, New York.